Yarn binder



E. ST. PIERRE July 3, 1951 YARN BINDER Filed Sept. 13, 1949 Fla. 5

Fla 3 F162.

fiI/VEA/WR: EacEA/ESZPJERgQ Patented July 3, 1951 YARN BINDER Eugene St. Pierre, Pawtucket, R. 1., assignor to Hemphill Company, Central Falls, R. I., a corporation of Massachusetts Application September 13, 1949, Serial No. 115,381

4 Claims.

This invention is a new and useful improvement in binders for circular, knitting machines and particularly in binders which retain yarns of all types including elastic efliciently but require no extraneous operating mechanisms. It is a modification of the well known spring binder which has been used to some extent to supplement mechanically operated binders but alone has been thought to be ineffective to bind yarns reliably.

One form of the binder of this invention is shown in the drawing of which:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of part of a binder assembly showing in particular the binder proper and an associated cutter;

Figs. 2 and 3 are elevations of the back and front elements respectively of the binder; and

Figs. 4 and 5 are illustrative views showing, primarily, how an elastic yarn is bound.

As best shown in Figs. 2 and 3, the binder consists of a back plate I of relatively stifi but bendable material such as soft steel, the lower portion of which is fluted as shown at 2. It is also provided with a projecting toe 3 extending outwardly from the bottom of the element in the direction in which the cylinder is moving.

The other element 4 of the binder shown in Fig. 3 consists of a piece of spring steel of the same general shape as element I and adapted to be held in close contact with the fluted side of element I by two screws 5 by which the assembled binder elements may also be fastened to the binder bracket 6 or other suitable part as shown in Fig. 1. The edge of spring 4 which fronts in the direction from which the needles approach is provided with a number of saw-teeth I, as shown in Fig. 3. Also, its lower end 8 is curved outwardly so that it is spaced from the lower end of plate 2 to form a throat 9 through which the yarn can enter without difficulty. This binder may be associated with a mechanically operated cutter of any suitable type such as that illustrated in Fig. 1.

Of course, the binder will be positioned so that, as the yarn feeding finger with which it operates is moved from operative to inoperative position, the yarn will automatically pass into the throat 9 of the binder and then upwardly into the binder proper as diagrammatically indicated in Fig. 5. The flutes 2, in the back plate I against which spring 4 fits snugly, provides a number of relatively narrow edges which will compress the yarn to some extent and intervening recesses into which the yarn is free to expand. Consequently, the yarn will be securely held against any reasonable tension. This binder is particularly eflicient with respect to elastic yarn because the high degree of compressibility and expansibility of such yarn insures a very intimate engagement with the fluted back plate I. Since the flutes 2 are more efiicient in the transverse direction, teeth I are provided to engage the yarn and prevent it dropping downward in the binder if the outward and upward movement of the yarn finger I I, diagrammatically indicated at I0 and. the tension on the yarn should momentarily release the compressing effect of spring 4. Likewise the toe 3 of backplate I is provided because of the tendency of the needles after they have passed the binder to carry the yarn downward. As these needles swing around, the yarn is moved backwardly against the edge of the back plate and, if by any chance it should move downwardly within the binder far enough to be in danger of being carried out, it will catch upon the upper edge of toe 3 and be retained.

In this way, a type of binder known for its inefliciency has, by modification, been made extremely effective to bind securely elastic yarn which is recognized as the most difiicult yarn of all to bind securely by any type of binder and, from the practical point of view, the prime requisites of cheapness and simplicity have been fully met.

I claim:

1. A yarn binder which includes a stiff tonguelike plate provided with longitudinal flutes and a resilient plate normally in close contact with said fluted portion of said plate except at the free end which is bent away from said plate to form a throat for the entry of a yarn between the two plates, said resilient plate being provided with a plurality of serrations opposed to the direction of entry of yarn between the two plates.

2. A yarn binder according to claim 1 in which the free end of the fluted portion of the back plate is provided with a lateral projection at the edge from which the yarn emerges.

3. A yarn binder according to claim 1 in which the free end of the fluted portion of the plate is provided with a lateral projection on the edge opposed to the serrated edge of the resilient plate.

4. A yarn binder which includes a stiff tonguelike plate provided with longitudinal flutes and a resilient plate normally in close contact with said fluted portions of said stiff plate except at the free end which is bent away to form a throat for the entry of yarn between the two plates and in which the free end of the fluted portion of the stiff plate is provided with a lateral projection at the edge from which the yarn emerges.

EUGENE ST. PIERRE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 965,351 West July 26, 1910 1,727,784 Pulster Sept. 10, 1929 2,201,092 Hug May 14, 1940 

